Where the Dead Leaf Fell
by Lawliet Veneziano
Summary: In the aftermath of an epic battle, there is pain and loss, there is regret and there is resignation. But in the following moment, comes hope; those who lost everything find themselves somewhere new, where the Mad Titan is unknown and the Infinity Stones are not even whispers. And a chance for fixing everything lays, if only they can rise to grasp it... (IW spoilers ahead!)
1. Poor King, I Have No Comfort For Thee

"You don't look like you're from around here." The voice was clear but not in the way that the half unconscious man could really hear her; the words came across fuzzy to him, almost slurred, probably a product of whatever it was he had gone through. But there was still, in some strange way, a clearness to them. And he knew what it had said and he knew what it meant. It was everything else that made no sense.

Tony Stark, genius, philothropist, attempted-hero, PTSD riddled idiot, failure of a leader. That was him. That had always been him; maybe everyone had been right, he really wasn't cut out for being a hero. Hell, even he had never really been fully convinced of his ability to truly even try. Building stuff was easy, being a billionaire playboy was easy, being an alcoholic and sass master supreme was easy. Actually doing good, that was hard, and no matter what he did, no matter how he tried, he never seemed able to get it right.

But never had he felt that more than in that moment. It felt like he could barely breathe, it felt like everything had suddenly stopped but still he could feel Peter in his arms. He could feel the smaller form of the teenage would-be hero, that young man who with pleading eyes and cracking voice had asked not to die. Had begged. And apologized to Tony, like it was his fault, like it was ever his fault; try as he did though, as much as the brilliant businessman tried to tell himself how he'd told Peter to go home, how he'd tried to make him stay away, how Peter had disobeyed and that's why he'd been on Titan, how Peter was not supposed to be there and yeah it was his fault, Tony could not convince himself of it. Every inch of his mind screamed "You should have protected him", "You should have done more", "He was your responsibility and now he's dead", "You failed to save even just him". His fingers twitched and he realized that he had been holding basically the same position since Peter disappeared, almost like it was just a dream and if Tony wished hard enough, didn't believe it enough, it would stop being real.

It was not that he didn't notice the others suffering either. He saw Doctor Strange crumble away before his eyes, his mind racing with how, and why, and just so much why. But even as he asked the sorcerer had no answer that honestly made him feel any better about this; deep down Tony knew Stephen was never going to be able to give him an answer that made this any less horrific. Thanos had gotten the Time Stone and portalled away ala Space Stone, Peter had crumbled in Tony's arms, Stephen disappeared before his eyes, Mantis and Drax and Star-Lord; they had all just drifted to ash and while it was Peter that hurt the most in that moment, it was with each and every one of them, the looks on their faces, their movements and expressions as it dawned upon each and every one of them what was happening, what was going to happen to them and those they cared for, that Tony's heart started to shatter, more and more.

Until he found his whole body feeling numb when he first noticed his fingers start to slowly break apart. He stared at them, simple and quiet; it didn't hurt, none of it hurt and he wondered if it was the same for the others. Tony convinced himself that the only difference was that he was not afraid, not like Peter had been. It had been a very long time indeed, the Iron Man told himself, since he had actually feared death.

He thought of Pepper as his body started to turn to nothingness, slowly but surely; he thought of their engagement, he thought of their last conversation, he thought of the dream he'd had and the part of him that really did want to have a child with her. He wondered if she was okay, if she would be disappointed, angry, sad. Then he thought of Bruce, and he thought of Steve; he thought of his friends, the ones not there, the ones he left behind on Earth when he came to this place with Ebony Maw's ship. Were they okay? Were they safe? Did Doctor Strange's giving Thanos the Time Stone...no, their combined failure to stop Thanos, did that doom them too? Had Steve turned to dust before Bucky's eyes, did Bruce have to watch as Natasha disappeared? Did T'challa watch as his people shattered and turn to ash? What about Hawkeye, Fury, Happy, Rhodey? How many of them had suffered, how many of them died in the arms of those they loved or inches from their wanting fingertips? How many lives were on Tony's hands again? A voice tried to tell him:

 _"If Star-Lord hadn't let his emotions get ahead of him..."_

 _"If Doctor Strange hadn't given up the Time Stone..."_

 _"If Mantis could have held out just a bit longer..."_

 _"If Peter had just listened and gone home..."_

But all were too weak in the face of the louder voice, his own, shaking as it made it's way out of his mouth and into the dusty air of Titan, a last cry of a dying man into a dead planet's atmosphere, the last thoughts of the guilty as he closed his eyes and fell to his knees, saturated with emotion and anger and pain. And so much self-hatred it hurt.

"If only I'd been better..."

He opened his eyes to a sky full of stars, and a giant glowing full moon. And his heart was still beating but Tony didn't know whether to say it was true or not. Nothing felt true, nothing felt real, and he stared upwards, gaze glued to the formation of the celestial bodies; his mind tricked him into seeing a circle, surrounding the moon, six stars making a halo around the shining rock in the sky.

"Hey," the voice from before spoke, not the ones from in his head, not his own; the word came out crisp but there was curiosity, and concern. Tony turned his head to find himself looking into two red eyes, set in the face of what looked to be a young woman. She stared back at him and tilted her head, blinking once, twice, then speaking again, "You okay?"

"Where am I?" He spoke with a voice that felt like it hadn't been used in a thousand years.

She smiled a strange smile; not pity, not happiness, not amusement or anger. It was unknown and the words came from her clearly as her first. It was his mind that was struggling to make sense to him.

"The city of Hyperion. I'm Tsuki Kokuryuu; you want some help?"


	2. Opened Upon the Dusk Demesnes of Night

Normal in Hyperion was far from what normal was anywhere else, but this was not something that ever actually crossed the mind of Tsuki Kokuryuu as she went about her every day activities. After all as far as the girl remembered, she had never known any other city, had never known any other place. So to the twenty-seven year old, it was normal for her to work in a thriving city, full of people and life, sometimes full of troubles as well but nothing too abnormal, then cross Sysra Avenue and be in a sea of ruins and broken buildings, walking along streets burnt black by some unspoken disaster and walking over the vines and plants working their hardest to reclaim the lost city. The sparks of magic that danced about with every step in the ancient half of Hyperion, that slithered away into the shadows the moment her foot hit the other side of the street, where the buildings still were standing and for the most part clean, though no place was perfect; it was all just a part of life to her, as it had been since she was little, wandering the same pathways from her home to the little bookstore Nevermore that was now hers. But once had been his.

The ultimate point though was that there was Hyperion-normal that was intrinsically different than the kind that even New York knew. But it didn't mean that finding a strange man laying in the middle of the street in Ancient Hyperion was a common occurrence. In fact as Tsuki took note of the man on her way back to her loft apartment, lugging four overfilled bags of groceries off both arms, a rather put-upon Maine Coon on a harness trudging along next to her, she was struck with the utter abnormality of it.

It took her more than a minute to make her decision but she dropped the bags, gently and with plenty of hesitation, and turned to her pet who stared back with glowing emerald eyes and chirped in a way that felt almost insistent. She shrugged and made her way towards the unconscious figure, followed closely by the cat; indeed it was the cat who reached them first and sniffed at the form curiously. Tsuki leaned down, gently pushing her pet away before examining the man better. It was definitely a man, a very battered and damaged man, and she reached out to touch him, to feel if he was real, and maybe even check if he was still alive. Her fingers felt the artery under the skin of his throat, dirty and crusty with dried blood; she frowned but tried to focus. Nothing, coldness, and stillness, and she nearly pulled away until it came to her: small, feeble, slow, but there. A beat.

She pulled away and spoke, not sure if he would answer, not with how weak his heartbeat had felt; it was more an automatic response than anything else, unthought of but slipping out before she could stop them. "You don't look like you're from around here."

He did not answer and the cat stared at her; Tsuki winced and whispered, "Don't give me that look, Charlie, it just slipped out."

The cat gave a soft chirp and she shook her head, turning her head back to the strange damaged man. There was something about him that struck her as being in pain; it wasn't so much the expression on his face but there was something in him, the way he lay, the way his clothes hung ripped and heavy, the dim glow of the circular device over his chest. It was in the very air around him and she could feel the magic stir, could feel her fingers twitch again and she bit down on her lower lip as it crept over her, drawing a thin line of blood until her hands settled and she felt her own heart slow. There was always that danger, that the magic would call, that it would whisper wordlessly and draw her hand; her brother's words rang in her ears, warning, advice, pleas, a little bit of all of the above and she took a deep breath.

Then saw his eyes open and her first thought was how empty his dark brown eyes looked; she followed his gaze upwards and she blinked, finding her attention on the moon. That was even more dangerous and she tore herself away, wincing for a second before turning back to him. It was slow but life seemed to return to him, bit by bit, second by second, and his attention moved to her as well. Their eyes met and she wondered to herself what had brought him there and more than anything that her comment wasn't simply a slip of the tongue but the truth finding it's way through her. She could see it in his eyes: he did not belong there.

"You okay?" This too left her and she tried to get another look at him; he was hurt, very hut, she wondered if he could even walk like this. She certainly couldn't pick him up, that was impossible for her, even with all of her swords training. But a soft voice in her head told her she couldn't just leave him alone there either, that would be wrong. What to do? What to do?

"Where am I?" he responded and his voice sounded hoarse to her and confused; he tried to move but his body seemed too heavy for him too. Tsuki offered a hand and a light reassuring smile back him; maybe with a little help he could at least stand. But she still couldn't carry him.

"The city of Hyperion. I'm Tsuki Kokuryuu; want some help?" She wasn't about to take no for an answer to tell the truth, the question was just a formality. He stared at her still and there seemed to be a flash of something behind his eyes, mistrust perhaps, or just a continued confusion; either way as his hand moved up to grab hers she grasped it as tight as he could and winced as she tried to pull up while he tried to push himself back to his feet. He was heavy, though maybe it was more the fact that his movements were stiff and he was having difficulty controlling his body again after whatever just happened; still with some determination, and a few almost encouraging sounding mewls from Charlie sitting near and watching them, they managed. And the man was on his feet.

Tony turned his head to regard the cat; his head was spinning, with memories he didn't want to remember and confusing information and questions and he had no idea how he got there but standing hurt and he felt a shortness of breath that reminded him of when the shrapnel and Arc Reactor had still been a part of his chest. But the cat weirdly made him feel better.

"Is that a bear?" No he knew it was a cat. Why would she have a mini bear on a harness? It's tail was way too long.

Tsuki snorted, putting a hand over her mouth to cover up the laughter threatening to leave her. This was far too serious to be laughing. She wondered if his question was a sign of brain damage, of humor or if he had just been like that before. As he turned to look at her she shook her head. "No, that's a cat, Maine Coon. His name is Charlie."

Charlie chirped in response to his name being spoken and the injured man turned to look back at the feline again, raising an eyebrow. Charlie huh? The cat was huge but it didn't seem vicious; he admittedly didn't know much about cat breeds, except that Siamese was the type from that Disney movie and there was a really weird hairless type that had something to do with Egypt he was pretty sure, so Maine Coon meant nothing to him. Hence his next question. "Are they always that big?"

"Charlie's still a kitten; he's not fully grown yet," Tsuki said and couldn't help a smirk in anticipation of his reaction, the man turning his head to look at her with a somewhat unconvinced expression.

"That's a kitten?" She nodded and he sighed, shaking his. "Nope, that is no kitten. That as I said before is a bear, maybe a very small one with a weird tail, but definitely a bear. Maybe a strange dog. You sure it's a cat and not a dog?"

"I'm pretty sure," she said lifting an eyebrow slightly at him, "Is there anything else you need to know about my cat or can we move on?"

"Move on to what?"

"Like to what you were doing laying in the middle of the road in Hyperion at night?"

"Good question," Tony said more to himself than to her. He thought of Titan again, of Thanos and the fight and the loss of the Time Stone and everyone disintegrating. Peter turning to ash. And he felt an ache in his chest again, his body feeling the pain in every inch; he'd been stabbed, beaten, had a moon thrown at him, but still it didn't compare to what seeing them disappear his eyes had done to him. Yet...

Yet he'd disappeared too hadn't he but he was here wasn't he? He lifted his hands and looked at them, looked at him; he looked shabby, damaged and his clothes were in shambles. He probably looked homeless to her; probably was the type of person who just liked to help people. But he was alive and here and why? Where was 'here'? Hyperion, that had been what she had said but where was Hyperion? It certainly wasn't Titan and it almost looked like Earth but it felt different. His attention returned upward to the moon and it's strange halo of stars that he was becoming certain wasn't just his mind making things up, and he frowned a bit.

"What happened with Thanos and the Infinity Stones?" That was what he answered her with, that was all that came to mind. He knew he couldn't be on the desolate homeworld of the Mad Titan but even though she had told her the name of the city, that meant nothing to him. Where was he? And what happened with Thanos? Were the others okay then? Did they actually win in the end, was the ash just something different, something weird and harmless and he hadn't failed to protect everyone after all. He wasn't a failure after all.

She furrowed her brow, unsure what he was talking about. "Thanos and the Infinity Stones? Is that some sort of band or something?"

It didn't really surprise him; only a few had to know after all. Tony shook his head and looked around him; the city certainly looked like it had gone through something bad, though it struck him also something was off as well. The air felt strange and the shadows seemed almost to move too much. He spoke again, "No, I mean, people turning to ash and all that. The Avengers, SHIELD, Wakanda and all that..."

"I don't know anything about any of that," she said frowning, "I just found you unconscious in the street; I mean you look like you've definitely been in some big incident but I assure you no one around here's been turned to ash."

"No one?" No that sounded insane; maybe they weren't on Earth. No he knew they couldn't be because how wouldn't he know of some city called Hyperion? And this place felt so fundamentally different than Earth. But Thanos said he was getting rid of half of everyone in the universe. Maybe he was right, maybe the ash was different but a portion of his brain kept screaming back against that.

"What's the name of this planet?" he asked, "Are we still in the Milky Way Galaxy?"

Tsuki blinked and was silent for a moment, not sure how to respond to that. It occurred to her a distinct problem here and she was hit with the understanding of what might have happened to him; not the whole story, and certainly not why, but she had a clue.

She took a deep breath and moved to grab Charlie's harness. "This sounds like this is going to take a while. How well do you think you can walk right now?"

"Somewhat," Tony said. It did not escape his attention how she avoided his question, and it bugged a lot; it made him suspicious and want to know more. But at the same time, at the same time he wasn't too sure if he really did.

"Can you help carry groceries?" The genius engineer was taken aback by the request and looked around, finally seeing the bags on the sidewalk, sitting there waiting. Maybe she'd been on her way home, he thought to himself. He flexed his arm some, and moved his legs; it hurt, a lot, but no enough to kill him he supposed.

Tony nodded and Tsuki smiled lightly before walking over to grab two of the bags. "Good, grab the others and follow me. I need to get these home first."

"You plan on answering my question?" he asked and she bit her lip before nodding shortly.

"We get these home then we go out to The End." With a capital T and capital E; he wasn't too sure how he knew but there was something in her voice that made it clear that was how it was. That The End was something proper and important, it had a capital T and a capital E.

He nodded again, not having a quick remark to that. Tony had no idea what was going on, and he could feel there was something that changed in her mind when he had asked about what planet they were on though he had no idea how that could be. Heading over and with some difficulty bending down to grab the remaining bags, he followed after her as she started down the sidewalk without a word.

It was only after they had gone a few blocks from where they met that Tony finally broke the silence again, his voice seeming to echo in the emptiness. "Is this even really a city?"

It was broken down, decrepit; he had fought in many places since coming out as Iron Man, he had seen things most people couldn't really imagine, other worlds. And even Titan was far worse, there was something about what he had seen of Hyperion that made him wonder. Ruins of buildings crumbling around them, they had walked for a while but there hadn't been a single light on in any of the buildings that looked possibly capable of holding life; overhead streetlamps flickered, on and off, eternally dying. And there was blackening, it looked almost like fire damage but when they got close to one such building, his finger brushed over it and his body felt suddenly and violently ice cold, and a sensation that something was incredibly wrong there filled him. She was here but was there even anyone else? Or did she lie about others disappearing?

"This is Ancient Hyperion," she spoke and there was a softness, a hesitation, that he couldn't help but turn his gaze back to her; her back was to him though so he couldn't see her expression but there was something in her voice, "There are two halves of this city; this portion is the older city, not a lot of people live over here but I assure you it's not as dead and abandoned as it looks."

"What happened here though? This ain't no normal wear and tear."

She shrugged again, just like when it came to answering his question about where they were really, a simple movement. Tony suspected something was really going on and he didn't like that. "Seriously what's going on around here? Normally I wouldn't mind some mystery and stuff but my head hurts, my body hurts, and-"

He stumbled; he felt all the strength leave him, just for a minute, just for a second, but still was enough for him to fall to the ground and beyond the sound of the groceries falling too, scattering along the street, he could hear ringing in his ears. Tony didn't entirely understand it, but he didn't need to. All he needed to understand was that he was feeling terrible suddenly and he could barely make out the sound of Tsuki's voice saying something to him, the ringing so sharp and loud. His head started to spin and hurt, just a little at first then quickly more, like the building up of pressure, all in preparation of exploding; the pain clouded his other senses and he shut his eyes tight, hands moving to try to grip his head, to secure it or maybe just pop it like a zit. Maybe that would make things easier; yeah he just needed a little more and then it should be over then right? Part of him knew it was ridiculous to think that, the smart part of him, the genius in him, but it just hurt so much and it was starting to spread and he started to wonder if it was a delayed death. He was going to die now and it was going to hurt so much and part of him hated that, didn't want that; he wanted to die but he didn't want it to hurt. How stupid was that?

But as his hands lifted towards the sides of his head they didn't touch him but something soft, not hair but skin. Someone else's hands were already there, gently cupping his head with long fingers, and he forced his eyes open through the agony to look up at Tsuki; her own eyes were closed, and her mouth was moving. And it occurred to him she seemed to be speaking...no, singing; the pain was subsiding, or maybe it was being forced back, and there was a haziness around her that he wasn't certain was something he was just imagining. Swirls of scarlet and violet, sapphire and gold, they surrounded her and curled around her body like wisps of light; her voice cut into the remaining fog and it was clear, soft, and warm. The words were unknown, some language that sounded like nothing he'd known before, though a spark of knowledge told him it sounded almost like music itself; a sensation of warmth came over and he wondered for a second whether it was the natural progression of this pain that made it flow away, or if it was her. He couldn't tear his eyes away though and even as the pain was finally gone away, leaving behind nothing but a strange weight to his mind, he continued to watch her. Watch the way the words left her, the way she seemed lost in concentration of whatever it was. Until finally it stopped; her eyes opened and glowing red met mesmerized brown for a second before she blushed and pulled away from him, removing her hands, getting back up onto her feet. And he felt empty suddenly.

Tsuki felt flustered and her fingers twitched. She had not meant to do that, she really hadn't, but seeing him, hearing his words cut off and the sound of him hitting the ground, seeing the pain he had been, the young woman had been unable to resist. The magic came so easily too; it flowed through her blood and fingertips and the words were all too willing to come to her as she had leaned down to ease his pain. Healing was an easy thing after all, simplicity itself, something she had been taught far before she had known anything else. But there had been something else there, she'd felt it; as she had let the connection hold just long enough to try to remove his pain, ease his suffering and fix whatever was wrong, something had felt uncommon in Tony. A spark of something, maybe a seed, maybe it was nothing. She didn't know what, especially not what to make of it, but it slipped away when she had opened her eyes by chance to stare at her. Her mind stopped and so did the magic, pushing it back as quickly as she could and moving from him. She wasn't supposed to do that, she couldn't just let old habits die hard. She could not give into the magic so easily.

"Sorry," she said softly.

"It's fine," he said absently.

Tsuki offered her hand again without another word and he reached out to take it, standing once more with strange new strength. The pain was gone and there was that heaviness still but all the pain was gone. It wasn't just his head, he felt lie his whole body had been revitalized and he didn't understand this either. But neither did he mind it; his hand slipped from hers and he looked around, anywhere but at the strange mystery woman before him. He saw the groceries he'd been carrying, scattered, and he tried to smile; it came out weak, forced. "Yeah sorry about that."

She seemed not to understand for a moment then noticed the food as well. She sighed softly and rubbed her head. "Don't worry about it; we can clean it up, should still be fine." She was glad none of it was broken; cleaning was easy too.

A thought came to him and words started to form in his mind in preparation to say them; Tony wanted to say something like how she should leave it and just buy new stuff to replace it. He wanted to offer to pay for it. He wanted to ask why she wasn't more annoyed that he dropped everything he was carrying. He wanted to ask why the cat was sill sitting there watching them, his leash dropped again in favor of helping him, and why she had helped him, and so many other questions, every question he'd had before and more. But they died before they could leave his mind, and he nodded, helping her pick up the fallen items and returning them to the loose bags still on his arms. And even after they had finished, even as they resumed their walk, the words refused to leave. Tony just watched the back of her head, the cat that trotted beside her, the broken buildings they walked by, and finally the haloed moon above their heads. It had fascinated him before but now he just felt...drawn, like it was whispering to him, telling him something though he couldn't figure out what it meant. And none of that felt odd at all.


End file.
